For the Love of The Land

It has been said that art will save the world. I really hope that is true.

I don’t need to tell you that we live on a very beautiful planet, you know that already. Most likely you already feel a sense of love for the land and frequently find yourself in awe when confronted with the marvels and mysteries of our natural world.

Global nature is presented to us by gifted folk through many different kinds of media so that we can begin to relate to the bigger picture where snow leopards, killer whales and rhinos roam.

This website is about the small things.

The microcosm of our Earth.

Nature at her most local.

My place.

Your place.

Through Earthlight I want to share with you my own humble interactions with place and time, out in Nature wherever that may be.

My life has been spent taking photographs and writing articles, stories, for magazines and books but that chapter has now largely been closed.

I’ve had enough of having my art being used to polish the bottom line of some media corporation and have taken the decision to bypass the traditional method of publishing.

I choose to reach out to you personally instead.

In these difficult times when our home planet is facing unprecedented challenges on a great number of fronts it needs all the love we can give.

This website isn’t about climate change.

I won’t talk about fracking or bee population crashes, we won’t be exploring the next great extinction or even whether or not our Earth is in her death throes.

There are plenty other places where these and a multitude of other important global issues are being discussed.

I am simply going to take the stance that our Earth is in trouble.

That perhaps life on Earth as we know it is entering the last days. If you believe that everything is going just fine that of course is your prerogative but perhaps this website is not for you.

Over the past couple of years my relationship with our planet has changed quite radically and this is no doubt due to my understanding and belief that we’ve reached the point of no return with climate change and our days are duly numbered along with much of life on Earth. I hit rock bottom when I realised this. The grief struck deep, and I wallowed in it for a while.

However something unexpected happened as I examined this mire I found myself in. My love for our Earth and the Nature of her reached new heights.

I found myself exploring the tiny things as though for the first time, or the last.

How would you be if you found your last dandelion?

Would you handle it with greater tenderness?

Would you connect more deeply with the spirit of the plant?

I bet you would.

I sometimes compare this feeling with what it is like to spend time with a loved one who you know is soon to cross over in death.

My grandmother comes to mind. I knew she only had days left as I sat with her in her living room. The young me noticed every sway of her grey hair, the flash of a smile that started on the left of her lips, the way she held her crooked fingers to the fire.

No doubt I’d seen these mannerisms many times before but hadn’t ‘seen' them. Now I noticed them and found I loved them fiercely.

Do you know what I mean?

I could have wrote poems about her. I should have wrote poems about her.

When I spend time in silence with Nature I feel the same depth of fierce love and want to bring it home with me, so I take photographs and write.

These are the stories I share with you on this website.

Some are very short, some not.

Some of the stories I won’t be able to make sense of but perhaps you will.

One thing I know for sure is that the photos will not be so called record shots that you can see all over Facebook and beyond.

After all, if Art is to save the world it needs to reach deep, to connect, to stir emotions that lead to action.

In my own small way I’m doing my best to tell the stories of the Land. To tell these Stories to you through this offering.